Mars 8th June 2016, SW Pro 150, Xbox 360 Webcam

[Aussie Dave]

Mars from last night with the Skywatcher Pro 150, EQ5 manual tracking with Xbox 360 camera, 2x Barlow, UV/IR cutoff filter.

3 different processes from the same stacked image. 30fps, 3500 frames stacked in AS!2 from 5200 total, wavelets in RS6 and finished in PDN.

[laudropb]

Nice images.

[Knighty2112]

Wish we could get as good a views like this up in the northern hemisphere. Well done!  

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice results. It must help to have Mars so much higher in the sky

[Aussie Dave]

It's great to have it almost at zenith Michael with Saturn close behind it but my capturing skills are still not up to par, my resulting videos were pink overall. Had to over process again to bring out some detail and work hard on the colour or it would of been just a pink smudge.

I spent nearly an hour trying to get capture settings right for Saturn too. I just couldn't bring it all together last night with settings. Earlier in the night I tried a few videos on Jupiter and got the colours good but my focus was out on all 3, there's always something :/

The tide will turn Knighty and you'll get your chance in the Northern hemisphere and then we'll have nothing to image all the way down here It's a shame I can't bring it all together on the night for some good results for a change. One day it will happen and then I'll probably kark it!

[xtreemchaos]

great shots Dave, mars was just orange blur for me lastnight.well done.thanks charl. 

[Aussie Dave]

In an EP Charl that's all that Mars looks like to me too at lower elevation, not much to see at all.

The fun starts when you use a cheap CCD webcam or a proper imager instead of an EP  You'll then start to see some darker shaded areas on live view and during good conditions you'll see the polar cap which looks like a small light coloured pimple or area on the edge of Mars depending on it's phase. As well as starting to see some detail you also get that much needed magnification, image size that is.

I'd post slightly bigger image results but I'm having troubles getting better detail, maybe it's conditions here by the coast.

[Stub Mandrel]

56 minutes ago, Aussie Dave said:

It's great to have it almost at zenith Michael with Saturn close behind it but my capturing skills are still not up to par, my resulting videos were pink overall. Had to over process again to bring out some detail and work hard on the colour or it would of been just a pink smudge.

If you pre-process with PIPP tell it to perform histogram equalistion and equalise RGB separately. The north pole cap and patches of mist(?) stop the blue overcooking.

 

[Aussie Dave]

Thanks for the tip Neil. I haven't been using PIPP for long and it's full of settings, most self explanatory but I haven't seen the histogram equalistion setting yet. I'll give it a go.

I'm still over cooking wavelets and sharpening as I've done since day dot

[MarsG76]

Nice Mars images... you captured good detail there.